In general, the invention relates to therapies for cluster headache disorders.
Also known as “suicide headaches,” cluster headaches are characterized by an extreme level of pain. Cluster headache disorders often manifest as recurring bouts of frequent attacks, called cluster periods, which may last from weeks to months. In episodic cluster headache disorder, cluster periods are interrupted by periods of remission when the attacks stop completely. In chronic cluster headache disorder, attacks continue unremittingly or with infrequent or brief remission periods.
Cluster headache disorders are not per se life-threatening; however, they are traumatic and debilitating. Although treatments exist, including abortive treatments (e.g., oxygen and sumatriptan) for stopping an initiated cluster headache attack and suppressive treatments (e.g., corticosteroids and lithium) for decreasing the frequency or severity of attacks, in some subjects, usually those with the chronic form, the disorder is medically intractable, with patients responding poorly or not at all to treatment. Thus, there remains a need for effective therapies for cluster headache disorders, particularly for chronic cluster headache disorder.